Misery Loves Company: Two Guys Watch Baseball

Game 63 - Red Sox
Rocky Mountain Highly Annoying

Colorado Rockies 6, Red Sox 3
Record: 37-26

I hate getting old for a lot of reasons. Today's particular beef is that getting old means I can't stay up until 12:30 am any more to follow baseball games that start at 9:05 EST to their conclusion. At least, I can't without stumbling through the better part of the morning in a coma. Which leads to:

I hate waiting patiently for the ESPN SportsTicker to scroll through WNBA, Tennis, and Major League Soccer scores before going to commercial just as baseball overnights come up. And I hate holding my breath just to see Red Sox 3, Rockies 6 followed by Yankees 4, Diamondbacks 2. And, apropos of nothing, I hate Gary Sheffield.

Schizophrenia Tour 2004 - Sox Over America continues in full bloom, as I don't know whether to remain positive or start breaking things. Among the positives:

* - Trot Nixon starts for the Sox tonight, marking his first appearance of the 2004 season. Of course, if Nomar's first week is any basis for comparison, I'd probably rather see Gabe Kapler in the lineup.

* - Scott Williamson's back in the bullpen, and throwing fairly well.

* - Curt Schilling is slated to start tonight, which tells this medically untrained fan that he's not too badly injured - though he's going to get an injection of something called Marcaine before the game. That sound you hear is the furious knocking of wood. Not my own.

* - The Yankees have received some fairly negative injury news in recent days, with Kevin Brown heading to the DL (Shocked. I'm shocked.), Mike Mussina leaving a game with a groin strain, and critical relief component Steve Karsay cancelling a rehab start with discomfort. New York's relatively old relief corps (at least the Rivera-Gordon-Quantrill meat of it) will be called on to throw a lot of innings during June and July, which could spell good things for the Sox in August and September.

* - And finally, to continue to beat this drum, the Sox haven't had a full team yet, and they're still within hailing distance of the Yankees and in the Wild Card lead.

On the other hand:

* - They're 4.5 games back of the Yankees, who are on a wicked tear despite the aforementioned injury worries.

* - The Sox seem incapable of going on a serious tear, despite chalking up series victory after series victory. The entire Yankee lead in the division has been built on the strength of an 11-2 run, during which the Sox have scuffled to 6-6.

* - Nomar's not been effective in his first week back - not shocking, but still not happymaking.

* - While Pedro and Lowe had had recent effective starts, Tim Wakefield's allowed 20 runs in his last 18 1/3 innings.

Still 99 games to play, and a handy Prozac/Percoset cocktail stands at the ready on my bedside table just in case. With a sigh, I reluctantly remain optimistic about the rest of the season. As I've said before, I could be a Mets fan.